The great state payroll snafu

SANTA FE -- Hasty implementation of a great idea early in Gov. Bill Richardson's administration has haunted state government ever since.

When Richardson took office state government had 70 disparate payroll and human resources systems. It made sense to combine those into one overall system. Many other states were in the process of doing the same thing. Software programs had been developed that would handle such a task.

Fitting 70 different systems into one new statewide system wasn't going to be easy. New Mexico could have contracted to have such a system designed and installed but it was cheaper to buy it off-the-shelf and then hire another company to help you do it yourself.

Such conversions were taking other states in the neighborhood of 28 months to get everything up and running smoothly. That included some time to run both systems in parallel for awhile to be sure they gave the same results and time to convert a few departments ahead of the others just to see how things worked.

But someone in New Mexico state government wanted to do the conversion in half the time and half the cost. That pressure usually is blamed on the Department of Finance and Administration, which was responsible for the new system.

If you subscribe to the newspaper, you receive FREE access to all the exclusive content of the web site! Simply register to receive uninterrupted access to our award-winning and in-depth local online content!

Renew Current or Past Subscription / Register for Online Subscription

If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the Los Alamos Monitor, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.

Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.

Newspaper Acct. ID:

Street Address:

(exactly as it appears on the label)

If you are a subscriber and you do not know your account ID or don't have a copy of your newspaper available that shows the information on the address label you can click continue below to search for your account.

New Subscription/30 Day Free Trial Account

If you are new to the award winning Los Alamos Monitor and wish to get a subscription or simply gain access to our online content then please enter your ZIP code below and continue to setup your account.

ZIP Code:

Create a limited access account.Register to participate in community forums, post on the community calendar, blog etc. This registration does not give you full access to read our award winning content, etc.